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How It Ends

Posted on July 21, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

They were gathered at a coffee shop in the right part of town sipping coffee and trying to avoid each other’s eyes. Michelle and Vinay had been going out for less than six months even though they had known each other for nearly five years. Kamal and Nikhil had also been dating but nobody could remember for how long. Wherever they went, whomever they talked to, most people agreed that they looked and behaved like a married couple. Only the two of them knew the truth about themselves but that didn’t prevent the outside world from envying their togetherness.

When Michelle and Vinay had first started going out they had somehow fallen into the pattern of hanging out with the only other ‘couple’ they knew. Kamal thought that things were progressing too quickly for their new favourite companions but she only ever suggested it to Nikhil. On some days he agreed with her and on others he told her not to worry about another relationship’s progress when she had her own life to think about. In response she would ask if he felt their relationship needed work and that line of questioning quickly disintegrated into an argument from which there was no release without the churning up of past transgressions. She knew there was no need for it and so did he but they seemed incapable of stopping themselves when they set foot on any of the numerous paths that led to one of those types of arguments.

Kamal had been crying as recently as twenty minutes before they sat down across the table from Michelle and Vinay. It was becoming increasingly harder for Kamal to take the new relationship looks that Vinay and Michelle exchanged in her stride. It didn’t help that there seemed to be more bitterness and name-calling in her own relationship. As she looked from Michelle to Vinay she realised that they had recently had sex. They were both wearing that flush and she hated them for it. She also suspected that Nikhil found Michelle attractive so she was not too thrilled about that fact either.

Eventually Michelle broke the silence that had been punctuated by people sipping coffee and nibbling on cookies. “So what? Should we watch the Harry Potter movie or talk about the book?”

Nikhil frowned, “Why do we have to do either?”

“Because I’m bored.” She said it like a wheedling child but Nikhil seemed to find that either amusing or endearing because he smiled indulgently at her. Kamal glared at him but he was past noticing subtleties like that.

Vinay piped it, “So does anybody know how it ends?”

It was like someone had farted at a wine-tasting or said something loud and racist at the exact moment the music died down in a nightclub. The girls exchanged glances and then spoke at almost the same time, “Don’t you dare say anything.”

“I want to read the book and find out!”

“I swear I’ll punch you if you say one word!”

Vinay laughed, “Girls, girls! Such aggression! Totally unnecessary!”

Michelle put her hand on his leg, high enough that she had his undivided attention and said, “You say anything and you’ll find out exactly what kind of aggression we can be capable of.”

Kamal frowened, “Wait, have you even read the book?”

Vinay shrugged, “So he dies. What’s the big deal!”

“Shut up!” Michelle punched him in the arm, hard.

He rubbed his arm and said, “Wait, wasn’t there an orgy involved or something?”

Nikhil laughed.

Kamal nudged him to shut up, “Don’t encourage him,” but she was smiling.

Vinay continued mischievously, “Nobody was really dead, and there’s an orgy. It’s a happy ending.” He nudged Michelle and winked, “You’d like it.”

Nikhil leaned forward curiously, “What the book or the orgy?”

Michelle linked her arm in Vinay’s and smiled. Vinay downed the last of his coffee and said, “For me to know and you to not find out buddy.”

Nikhil shrugged, “Fair enough. So where are we going?”

Vinay tossed some money on the table, “I feel like watching a Hindi movie.”

Everyone groaned while Nikhil idly wondered how Michelle would be different from Kamal in bed.

Then he tried to think up ways to dissuade Vinay from following through on his desire to watch a Hindi movie.

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